Candid Notes

Cut paste fiasco

An example how sloppily the highly pampered officers of State secretariat function was witnessed recently when Secretary, Home, Nitesh Jha was mentioned as Principal Secretary, Home in an order. This order was not a routine one but amended transfer order of two officers of Indian Police Service (IPS). When the error was spotted, the order was quickly withdrawn and a new one in which the designation of Babu was correctly mentioned was released. It is apparent that the episode which is being portrayed as typing error actually happened when the official preparing the transfer order simply cut pasted the names from a previous order from the recent past when the Home department was helmed by a Principal Secretary ranked officer. It also shows prevalence of the habit of cut, copy and paste in babudom and how sometimes technology can actually become a bane. One is also sure that severe punitive action would have been taken against the responsible person had this mistake been committed by a lesser mortal deployed in some other office instead of the secretariat.

Pesky leader

The habit of a senior BJP functionary to put his foot in mouth has embarrassed the saffron party in Uttarakhand. This leader embroiled himself in the infamous ‘me too’ episode which rocked the party and resulted in unceremonious exit of an all powerful Sanjay Kumar from the post of general secretary (organisation), when his ill fated attempt to convince the victim to refrain from going ahead with her plan to implicate Kumar in sexual harassment case. The smart girl flummoxed this leader by releasing tapes in which he is heard saying that Pracharaks too have physical needs. The storm generated by this unsavoury episode had not subsided when a purported video in which this gentleman is seen commenting that Dalits are in business of selling spurious liquor and betting started circulating in social media. The contentious utterances of the voluble leader has given the opposition Congress a stick to browbeat BJP by claiming that the real face of BJP leaders, who claim to occupy a high moral high ground, has been exposed.

No vacancy?

Recent meeting of the in charge of Uttarakhand Congress with a prominent Baba based in Rishikesh has heated up political environment in the Himalayan State. This Baba said to be close to RSS and BJP is reportedly pitching for a Lok Sabha ticket from Congress party for a senior Minister of TSR Cabinet. Speculations are rife that before the crucial Lok Sabha elections couple of the turn coats, who had revolted against the then Chief Minister Harish Rawat in a dramatic turn of event which unfolded in the State Assembly on March 18, 2016 and joined BJP could return to Congress. To complicate things for BJP, at least five Ministers of TSR Cabinet are willing to contest ensuing Lok Sabha elections which has prompted the BJP state chief to state that there is no vacancy on all the five Lok Sabha seats of the State.